Walkthrough 4: The real world!

So, you have managed to get to the real world! Congratulations!
Now to get started here.

OPTIONS:
========
Let's first set your options to make playing smoother. Feel free to set the
options as you wish - these are merely suggestions:
> options wimpy terribly hurt
Will make you run away from any fight if your health ever goes down this far.
> options inventory on
Will make your inventory a bit easier to overview.
> options gagmisses on
Remove all misses (you and your opponent will still miss now and then, but no
message of these misses will be shown).
> options brief on
When entering a room, only a brief description of the room will be shown.
This means a lot less text when moving around. You can still see the whole
room description by doing "l", and you are adviced to do so whenever you go
into a room you haven't been in before.
> options screenwidth off
Linebreaks are no longer added to cut the lines to fit the screen. Normally
your client can handle to break the lines where fitting. This is very useful
when making more advanced triggers.
> options fights off
Don't show fights between others. Removes a lot of spam when you're in a team.
> options silentship on
Removes a lot of spam by the harbour - ships coming and going. Might be good
to keep it off until you've been there. Then you can decide if you want it on
or off.

GET TO SPARKLE TOWN:
====================
Best place to start! If you don't already have Sparkle church as your starting
location, check the room you are in. It should have a portal. Enter it and
you'll be teleported to Sparkle, just south of church. Go north into the church
and "start here" to set it as your starting location.
There are many bonuses to having this as your starting location: It's central
(close to shops, ships and other players), safe (nobody can initiate a fight
in there), has several beginner quests nearby, but the main bonus, as long as
you have your newbie pin, is that it can restore your fatigue. So whenever you
run out of moves or want to get back to Sparkle, just use that "home" ability
in your newbie pin and you're teleported back to this church. Drained of all
moves, but a simple "rest" will restore you fully, and you're´ready to go
again. Very useful if you go around killing and get too burdened for a walk
back home.

Now, check your magic map. It will show you the general outline of the town.
The most important places to know of are:
Shop (s,2e,s): Here is where you sell all loot! Different shops can have
 different prices, but this one pays pretty well. Only drawback is that you
 never get more than about 2 gold 100 silver, so anything valued above 1500cc
 or so, would be better to sell in eg the shop in Green Oaks (Faerie - south).
Bank (s,e,n): Deposit all money you don't need here. Whenever you get enough
 to train your skills, do so. The bank can exchange money, but charge 20% fee
 for it. If you want to change currencies, it's better to do it in Dwarfheim
 (16.7% fee), but remember to kill Rattus there before changing, or he might
 cause major trouble (stealing your money). But until you have maxed your
 skills, don't bother changing. Trainers take coppers just as happily as any
 other metal. When you can't carry enough copper to train even a single step,
 just take 500 silver and then the rest in copper, and you can keep using up
 coppers.
Post (s,w,3n,e,s): Always good to be able to contact friends and others. You
 probably have learned by now that there is no real chat line. Some magical
 means to send messages exist, but otherwise it's post if you want to reach
 someone. Many post offices offer special delivery for a small fee, by
 carrier pigeons, chipmunks and other kinds of messengers. This can be used
 to send a letter directly to the receiver, so he won't need to find a post
 office to read your mail. Sparkle Post doesn't offer this service.
Library (3s): Here you can find a lot of books about Genesis - areas, guilds
 and other useful information. Have a look when you feel like relaxing a bit.
Tower of Realms (s,e,s): The bottom floor has some boards where you can read
 about discussions and news. The most important board is the one in the
 "common" room. But this tower is mainly for quest information - each domain
 is represented in a room here. And each of these rooms has a quest orb,
 which can be used to list all quests for that domain, to see which ones you
 have left to do. For each quest you can also get a little hint about where
 to start on it.
Adventurers' guild (s,w,s): Here you can meditate to see how your progress is
 coming along. There is also a newbie box here, which can have quite useful
 stuff. And you can also learn/improve some skills here.
Inn (s,w,3n,e,n): If you get hungry (to regain movement points faster).
Pub (s,3e,2n,w): If you want to get drunk (to improve your healing rate).
Harbour (s,3e): The harbour consists of lots of piers, each with a boat you
 can board, for a small fee, to reach other domains.
Enchanter (s,w,4n): Here you can learn more about imbuements. Any imbued item
 you find can be disenchanted here, giving you 5 pc. So NEVER sell imbued items
 in a normal shop. Disenchanting them here to get 5 pc is normally also a waste
 of money, since you can normally get at least 25 pc for an imbued item if you
 put it out on auction - normally more. Still an interesting place with many
 useful things.
Auction tent (s,2e,enter tent): Here is where you put good things up for
 auction. Just give Rommik whatever you want to auction, and then "say" what
 you want to have as minbid, maxbid etc. In general, any imbued item should
 be put up on auction - minbid 20 or lower (to not cost anything), maxbid
 at least 25, and the rest is up to you to find out. Keep the paddle you get
 from him - it can be used to list and bid on items no matter where you are,
 and it will tell you when a new item has been put up for auction.
Market square (s,2e): Has a well with water you can drink from. A very big,
 recurring event here is "the wednesday quest": Every wednesday some merchants
 come here to set up their wares. What they have is uninteresting, but what
 they don't have is most interesting - if you examine the kiosk you will be
 told about an item they are missing. If you bring them the items they ask
 for, you will be rewarded (in quest-xp). This is a special quest that can be
 slved once a week, every week. And you don't compete with others - everyone
 gets their own task to handle.
Carlsan (s): Your first questmaster in the big world. He has a number of small
 quests to get you started, getting to know the town and learning some useful
 things. And helping him also gives both quest-xp and money.


Ok. So what would you like to do next?
Quest? Kill things? Explore? Relax? Meet people? Join guilds?

* Questing is a good way to start. Talk to Carlsan to get set up with a number
of easy, educational quests. After him, have a talk with the enchanter.
Nikolon in the library is also in need of some help, as are Rommik in the
auction tent. Use the quest orbs in the Tower of Realms to see what you have
left and to get hints on where the quests are.
* If you would prefer to slaughter some baddies, the Newbie Dungeon is probably
a good place to start - lots of creatures there, with lots of loot that can be
sold to give money for training. If you can hold yourself a little, talk to
the enchanter first, to get a quest that can be solved at the same time. His
quest is split up in several parts, all taking place in that dungeon.
The dungeon is located s,w,2n,13w,n,w,5n from the church. Bring a weapon! ...or
take whatever you find from your prey.
* If you enjoy exploring, I'd suggest having a look in Sparkle first, and then
either move outwards, or go explore the Newbie Dungeon. If you go for the
Dungeon, don't forget to talk to the enchanter first.
* For relaxing, have a look in the library and browse the books there.
* If you want to meet people, Sparkle is the place! If it's Wednesday, your
best chance is probably at the Market Square. Bank, shop and church are also
places people normally go to. If you'd like to join a team, it's probably ok
to use the newbie line to see if anyone's interested in bringing you around a
bit.
* Joining guilds is the way to the real powers! The main bonus is higher skills
and normally a special attack. The drawback is guild tax, which means that some
of the xp you earn is "lost" to the guild. You can learn and train skills in
the adventurers' guild in Sparkle, but also in Dwarfheim, the goblin caves
and Green Oaks. Once you feel you've maxed all important skills and have money
to spare, it might be time to think about guilds.
For guilds you have one Occupational slot, one Layman slot, one Craft, one Race
and any number of clubs. Occupational is the one you will gain most from, but
which will also cost the most xp-tax. Layman is a secondary guild, still very
useful. Craft can help a bit, race a little, and clubs are mostly just for fun.
Merc is easiest to join - close (s,3e,s,e,2s,2sw,2n), no requirements or tasks
to join, just go there and "register", and no penalty if/when you decide to
leave. Otherwise the most common/adviced guilds to join when starting is the
cadets/academics of Gelan. Layman guilds only, and with special requirement
that you may not join any occupational guild while joined to them. But they are
tailored for beginners and are good guilds to statt with (this is what I have
heard - I don't have any knowledge of these Gelan guilds... yet).
You can learn more about the available guilds in the Sparkle library,
or on the forum (http://www.genesismud.org/forums)
or Genesis homepage (http://www.genesismud.org/world/guilds)
or my homepage (http://www.lysator.liu.se/~tomca/genesis/guilds/)


This is just general information... I guess I should write some more specific
things too... Some other time.

Good luck!